


Starlight

by Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus



Series: And They Were Lab Partners [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Autistic Character, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, First Kiss, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gore, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, Memory Loss, Mild Gore, Recovered Memories, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-04-03 17:03:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21482842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus/pseuds/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus
Summary: An alternative take on the climax of season 4 and the possible aftermath. Horde Prime finally finds his way to Etheria and this time it's Entrapta who needs to seek out her lab partner and pull him out of harm's way. However, will he recognise her?Sequel to "In My Veins" with the title borrowed from a Starset song which I kept playing on loop as I wrote the first half of this fic.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: And They Were Lab Partners [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548472
Comments: 118
Kudos: 292
Collections: Shera





	1. Chapter 1

_"Once upon a time," Entrapta’s mother would read her back when she was young enough to remember her, "in a faraway land, there lived a prince."_

_"The prince was beautiful and adored by everyone around him, but he didn’t feel anything, so a fairy cursed him to change into a cold, unfeeling robot to match his heart."_

_That was how all fairy tales began: misguided royalty. A land far, far away. A curse, a poisoned cupcake, a nail that would prick the princess in the finger if she didn’t wear her safety gloves and send her into a magical slumber._

_“How does one break a curse?” little Entrapta would ask._

_Her mother would smile, a tendril of hair caressing her daughter’s cheek._

_“My little one, there is only one way to break a curse.”_

~~~

Entrapta gazed at the sky, at the blanket of stars stretched above her head, sparkling like - she frowned, trying to think of an appropriate simile; she has never been good at poetry – like, well, sparks. Tiny sparks from a welding torch scattered all over a midnight-blue tapestry, miraculously not setting it on fire.

At first, the sight took her breath away. She has never seen anything like it before; even the star charts Hordak showed her couldn’t compare to the real thing. An entire universe laid out above her, vast and beautiful and full of possibilities.

And spaceships.

Horde spaceships, as a matter of fact.

“Horde Prime is here,” Hordak rasped out, something strange ringing in his voice. He was supposed to be happy, excited for his brother’s arrival! After all, this has been the aim of their research all along, right? But here’s the thing: Entrapta wasn’t good with cues and social interactions, but she could tell that that little weird something in her lab partner’s voice wasn’t joy. It wasn’t relief. Wasn’t excitement. It wasn’t even surprise!

It was fear.

And then there was Catra, Glimmer, and that big explosion of green light that forced Entrapta to shield her gaze. When it died down, all three of them were gone, leaving her standing in the ruins of the Fright Zone, her gaze flickering between the strange sky and the LUVD crystal resting in her hand.

Alone.

Again.

With a sigh, Entrapta adjusted her new mask (made from the carapace of an insectoid-looking beast. Her old mask was broken beyond repair and she had to have _something_ to protect her face), slid the crystal into one of the many pockets of her suspenders, and squared her shoulders.

“Alright,” she turned to Bow and Adora, who were waiting next to their First Ones’ ship. “We’re going to get them back.” Hordak came for her to Beast Island, risking his very life just to bring her home. She had almost lost him there; she will not let go this time. “Lead the way.”

Enemies or no, there was a bigger circuit board to fry than their old rivalries. They will return to their usual squabbling and robot battles later, once she ensures that her lab partner is alright. And if it takes blowing up that entire fleet along with Prime, Catra and thousands of clones, then so be it.

Bow and Adora exchanged looks she couldn’t be bothered to decipher before they nodded in unison, gesturing for her to follow.


	2. Chapter 2

Hordak had almost forgotten how plain and sterile Prime’s ship was. After twenty years on Etheria, a land as colourful as it was bizarre, the sudden minimalism made him uneasy, like it was a place he no longer belonged to, leaving him exposed and vulnerable instead of secure and surrounded by his kin.

“Is that you, little brother?” a familiar voice sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. Before he could even think about what he was doing, Hordak was already on his knees as Horde Prime, the ruler of the universe, turned to rest his gaze on him.

“I thought that you had perished,” he said, sounding equal parts bored and amused, four eyes blinking lazily. He looked exactly like Hordak remembered him, down to the smallest of details. Pure and perfect, just like his empire.

“I was pulled into a shadow dimension,” he rushed to explain, something like fear writhing in his gut, but why should he be afraid? He was home, finally. “All this time I have been trying to return to your side.” Countless nights spent agonizing over blueprints, countless failed attempts to open a stable portal for long enough to send the signal through, countless hours spent listening to Entrap…

“But it has not been in vain,” he changed the subject swiftly, remembering Prime’s uncomfortable ability to look into the minds of his clones. “I have built an empire in your name.”

His brother regarded his claws casually. “I received your transmission, but I could not determine its source.” A subtle, almost imperceivable edge crept into his voice. Someone unaccustomed to hearing it would probably not notice, but Hordak felt his blood run cold.

“The tracking chip has malfunctioned,” he explained quickly, recalling his unfortunate venture into Beast Island. “I have yet to repair it.”

Four acid-green eyes narrowed. “I… see. You have been busy, I take it?”

He nodded quickly, fervently. “I conquered this world for you.” This. This is what he has been waiting for all this time. “To show you that I am worthy, so that I may retake my place by your side.” His voice rose, scarlet eyes wide with excitement. “I have bent its people to my will!”

The room suddenly grew colder, and Hordak immediately knew that he made a horrible, horrible mistake.

Horde Prime stood up from his throne, slowly descending the steps in a manner akin to a hunting feline.

“To _your_ will?” he repeated, the edge in his voice turning into a blade.

Hordak gasped, feeling fear well up in his throat. Every instinct screamed at him to flee as Prime roughly grabbed his face, venomous green gaze burning into him.

“Why can I not see your thoughts?” he growled, eyes flashing briefly, and Hordak shuddered as cold, slippery tendrils began to probe at his mind. He had forgotten how invasive the feeling was. Violating, even.

His arrival on Etheria. Scrambling to survive severed from the hive mind. Recruiting rag-tag misfits that would one day become his soldiers. The Fright Zone. The Black Garnet. The war against the Princess alliance. Clones. Endless rows of worthless failures, failures just like him. His first attempt to build a portal. A string of conquests, broken by the arrival of She-Ra. The kidnapping of princess Glimmer. Entrapta. Their research of First Ones’ technology. The way her eyes shone when she told him about her plans to improve the electrical grid. Trying to activate the portal once more. _Imperfections are beautiful._ Catra’s betrayal. The portal opening at last, tearing the fabric of reality asunder. Victory. Victory. Conquest after conquest. _Everything is perfect, then why…?_ Beast Island. Vines all around him. You’re a failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure. Pain. The feeling of Entrapta in his arms, clinging to him like he was something precious. _If his accomplishments on Etheria would not impress Prime, he and Entrapta would just steal a ship and fly off together, and he would show her all the stars she never got to see. If his system analysis was right, his tracking chip was fried, so Horde Prime wouldn't be able to find them. They would take Imp and Emily, and choose a ship with a ventilation system wide enough for Entrapta to comfortably navigate, and they could install solar batteries and maybe a small kitchen for making tiny snacks. And a large workshop. And a bedroom with a bed so much bigger than the bunk he was used to. With tons of pillows. And First Ones’ blankets. Good stars, Prime was going to kill him. He won’t even bother with reconditioning._

Horde Prime was going to kill him.

Horde Prime was about to kill him.

“I see now,” he hissed, voice deceptively calm. His claws dug into Hordak’s cheek, drops of purple blood staining Prime’s pristine white robes. “You have given yourself a name. You tried to create an empire of your own.” He smiled, a sight more horrifying than all of Beast Island combined. “There was even a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so?”

A pair of violet-red eyes, a wide smile, purple hair coiling like tendrils.

“No!” Hordak cried out, panic rising in his throat, his heart fluttering like a caged bird. “Brother… I did it, all of it, for you.”

Prime’s expression softened, and he gently caressed his bloodstained cheek.

“Of course you did,” he cooed, a paragon of benevolence. “My dear brother, you never change, do you.”

Quick as a viper, his hand wrapped around Hordak’s throat, lifting him up, and up, and up, until his feet lost contact with the floor. He couldn’t breathe. His vision was swimming, but the fury in his brother’s eyes was clear as day.

“You have forgotten who you are!” Prime exclaimed, his grip tightening. “You truly think you are worthy to stand beside me, could be equal to me? _I made you in my image,_ but you have become an abomination.”

His tendrils rose up, sprouting needles and diving for the ports on Hordak’s back. “And so, you must be _reborn!”_

Hordak’s universe imploded. He arched his back, a scream clawing its way out of his throat as pain flooded every nerve in his body. A void was opening up in his mind, swallowing everything it came into contact with, extinguishing memories like they were stars. The brighter they shone, the more unbearable the pain became.

_"You're very dear to me, too, Hordak," _an echo of Entrapta’s voice whispered into his ear. He howled, fighting with every inch of his dying mind to hold on to the remains of his identity. To hold on to her. _“More than you can imagine.” _He couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not her. Take away his armour. Take away his empire. Strip him of his rank, his honours, break every bone in his flawed, fragile body, but don’t…

_The fear in Catra's eyes as she gazed up at him._

Don't...

_The triumph coursing through his veins as Salineas fell._

Don't...

_“I’ve never had a lab partner before!”_

Don't...

_Imp, nuzzling against his hand in its sleep, tiny hands wrapped around his wrist._

Don’t…

_"Lord Hordak! I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but the diplomats from Terrivia are here to negotiate."_

Don't...

_“Hello. You’re blocking my light. If you could just step aside…"_

Don't...

_The reverence in Shadow Weaver's bow when he spared her pathetic life._

Don't...

_“What shall we call you?” the queens cowered in his shadow, hands and pincers tight around each other. Their army was defeated, their kingdom in his grasp._

Don’t…

_The bloodied grin of one of his first recruits as he helped him stand up. "Whose name shall we shout in battle, then?"_

Don't...

_He opened his mouth to answer them, to give them the name of their new ruler, but all that came out was static._

Don’t…

_What was his name again?_

Don’t…

_No, clones didn’t have names. What a foolish notion. His identification number was H_14700730. He was a third-class clone, made only to serve under his lord and master, Horde Prime._

…

_He was nothing._

…

H_14700730’s eyes flashed green once, twice, and turned black as the last star on his sky flickered and went out.

_System overload. Shutting down…_


	3. Chapter 3

Getting into Prime’s ship was surprisingly easy. All Entrapta had to do was sneak into the vents while Bow and Adora were busy fighting off the clones that intercepted them shortly after landing. So much for a stealthy entry.

Since she and Hordak had a nasty tendency to separate these days, she had built trackers into his new suit and her mask; that way, they could keep track of each other’s approximate location no matter where either of them was. Both trackers had their own power sources just in case, so even with the LUVD crystal in Entrapta’s pocket, she would see a red dot on the map of Horde Prime’s ship if she had access to it.

Which she didn’t.

“Hey, Imp?” she whispered to the small creature hiding in her hair. “Can you sense Hordak around here?”

Imp popped out of her right twintail, looked around the ventilation shaft for a couple of moments, sniffling, and shook its head before ducking in again.

“A shame." A shadow passed over Entrapta's optimistic nature before she brightened up. "It was worth a shot, though! Maybe I could hack into the system and dig around for some blueprints?” she mused, crawling through the vent. “Hey, record this for me, will ya? Horde Prime’s ship log, day one…”

~~~

_Down and down Princess Alicia fell, tumbling down the rabbit hole that seemed to have no end. “Why, I have been falling for what feels like years!” she thought, watching a myriad of curious objects fly past her. Power crystals, wrenches, robot parts, jars of marmalade (regrettably empty) and other knickknacks and thingamajigs. “If only I had wings like a bat, or could land on my feet like a cat. Do cats eat bats, I wonder? Or do bats eat cats?” _

_One bat flew up to her, somehow managing to stay on the same level as her as she fell and it simply hovered._

_“We do not eat cats,” it informed. “Cats aren’t real.”_

_Alicia frowned. “That is nonsense! Cats are real! This has been scientifically proven.”_

_“Is that so?” the bat arched an eyebrow. “Show me the evidence.”_

_“I cannot, for I am presently falling through a rabbit hole.”_

_“Rabbits aren’t real either, my dear.” _

_“Then what is real?”_

_The bat fell quiet for a while, pondering the question._

_“You are real,” it answered eventually. “The gravity is real, too, as you might be aware. That screwdriver that just passed us was probably real, as was that iced blueberry cupcake. Oh,” it brightened up. “Bats are real! Yes, we are the most real thing there is!”_

_Alicia blinked. “I have never seen a bat before,” she confessed. “I wasn’t aware that you are real.”_

_“Just because you cannot see it, my dear, doesn’t mean it’s not there.” The bat's red eyes twinkled strangely in the darkness.  
_

_“I was told that there are no bats on Etheria. I even conducted scientific research just to be sure.”_

_The bat nodded. “And you were right. We don’t live on Etheria. We came from space.”_

_And with that, the bat zoomed away as Alicia fell into a pile of tiny but very soft marshmallows, thus terminating her fall quite abruptly._

~~~

Catra looked up sharply as the grate in the ceiling of her and Glimmer’s cell swung open and Entrapta fell through, barely managing to catch herself with her hair to avoid crashing straight into Glimmer.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, her shock levels rising so high that they looped back into numbness.

Entrapta looked around the room, seeming to search for something.

"No, he's not here either," she muttered. Then, her eyes landed on the two of them. “Hi, Glimmer!” she waved at the dumbstruck queen. “Sorry I almost killed you. You shouldn’t sulk directly under vents, you know. It’s dangerous.”

Glimmer blinked, her gaze darting from Catra to the newly arrived purple ball of energy. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Opened it again. Closed it.

“By the way, Bow and Adora are here to look for you but I don’t know where they are now. You might want to look for them.”

That seemed to snap her out of shock. “Bow and Adora are here?!” she repeated, standing up from her sulking spot to grab Entrapta by the shoulders. “Where are they?! Are they okay?”

Entrapta frowned quizzically. “I’ve just told you that I don’t know where they are,” she said, extracting herself from Glimmer’s grip. “We were separated when I wandered off while they were fighting a bunch of clones. This place has a huuuuuuuuuuge network of vents.” She waved her arms around. "It's like a maze! Even the Crypto Castle isn't that complex."

Then, her attention shifted, landing on Catra. There was no outward change in her demeanour, but suddenly the cell became much, much colder. Catra felt goosebumps running up her arms and a strange, sickening feeling twisting in her gut. She felt like a specimen pinned to a board, naked in the light of surgical lamps and about to be slowly and carefully dissected by a scientist who, despite her short posture, seemed to loom above her.

“Catra,” the way Entrapta uttered her name was a single, teeny tiny strand of self-control away from a growl. She smiled, a wide grin displaying a full set of her teeth. Funny how some species considered it a sign of hostility. “Fancy bumping into you here.”

“I could say the same,” she replied, summoning every strand of her own self-control to keep her voice steady. After all, she had nothing to fear from the likes of Entrapta, right? Why was she so uneasy? There was nothing to be uneasy about! “What are you doing here?”

Instead of replying, Entrapta reached into her pocket and pulled out the purple crystal Catra had ripped out of Hordak’s armour. There was a darkness to her eyes, sparkling pools of magenta just a touch more unnerving than usual. It seemed that Beast Island had a good influence on her.

“Where is he?”

~~~

“Listen,” Catra rubbed the back of her neck. “About the whole tazing you and sending you off to Beast Island thing…”

“Shut up,” Entrapta smacked her in the mouth with a tendril of hair. Not very hard, but enough to shush her. She was typing away into a keypad, downloading the ship’s floorplan onto her holo-pad. “You know, there’s this old fairy tale I used to like. _Alicia in the Kingdom of Wonders,_ ever heard of it? No? Well, she has a dilemma.” Down came the mask, resembling the head of some giant insect. Blank green eyes drilled into Catra’s core. “_Do cats eat bats, I wonder? Or do bats eat cats? _If you keep interrupting me in this, we will find out.”

With that, she returned to typing without a further word.

“Psst,” Glimmer nudged her gently. “Mayyybe we shouldn't bother her?” Whatever happened since their last meeting, there was something off about the cheerful scientist; something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It unnerved her. Perhaps she really did belong on Hordak's side of the conflict...

She nodded, suppressing a shudder at the possible connotations of the rather sinister promise.

_“Traitor,”_ her own voice made her jump, and she found Imp perched on Entrapta’s shoulder, yellow eyes narrowed in a mixture of hostility and sadistic delight. _“Entrapta betrayed us.”_ It then paused, cleared its throat, and altered the recording. _“Catra betrayed us.”_

“She did, didn’t she,” Entrapta hummed, extending a tendril to pet the cursed creature as if it were a kitten. Clickity clack, added her fingers skittering across the keypad. “She’s a horrible friend; I wonder if anyone has told her this before.”

An image of Scorpia flashed through Catra’s mind, making her wince. _“You push them away, Wildcat,”_ Double Trouble told her, forcibly prying her eyes open to the truth she has been trying to escape ever since Adora left. Not for the first and certainly not the last, she wondered what her life would look like if she did desert the Horde along with her childhood friend.

Glimmer, meanwhile, sat back, twiddling her thumbs awkwardly. The tension between the two was thick enough to slice through; little bolts of electricity cracking in the otherwise empty hallway.

The keypad beeped, and Entrapta stood up. “There. I have the plans,” she announced, lifting up her holo-pad to show the other two a labyrinthine map of the ship. Somewhere in those corridors blinked a tiny red dot labelled “lab partner.”

“So you _are_ going to look for him,” Glimmer hummed, thinking back to all the horrible things the Horde had done to Etheria over the years. “Despite everything.”

“Of course,” Entrapta shot her a look she didn't know what to make of. “We’re friends, and friends don’t abandon each other when one of them is in danger. You should know that.” She pocketed the pad, lowering the mask over her face once more and heading for the vents.

“W-wait!” Catra called after her, voice slightly shrill with panic. “What about us? You have the map but we don’t!”

Entrapta didn’t turn around, but she stopped. Just for a minute.

“Glimmer has friends who are looking for her,” she said, her mask an emotionless shell. “As for you, I wouldn’t yell so much unless you want to attract..." a pause. "Unwelcome attention."

“Are you going to leave us here alone?”

She shook her head, using her hair to remove the cover of the vent. “Oh, no no no no no. I'm leaving _you_ here. Glimmer will be fine; for you, I couldn't care less." She waved a twintail dismissively. "I have a bigger circuit board to fry. Besides," green lenses gave Catra a quick once-over, "why shouldn't I?"

A moment passed.

Then another.

When Catra still didn’t reply, Entrapta gave Glimmer a short, almost imperceivable nod and dove back into the vents, deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

~~~

_“Mommy?”_

_“Yes, my child?”_

_“Why were Cinder's sisters so mean to her?”_

_Gentle fingers combed through her hair. “Some people are cruel, little one. They do not care for you as much as you do about them. This happens, like rotten berries or data crystals with cracks in them.”_

_“Is that why the birds plucked out their eyes?”_

_A chuckle, plum-purple lips curling into a soft smile. A tendril of hair reached out to grab a recording device covered with glittery stickers. “Reminder to self: speak to my dear husband about the kinds of fairy tales he reads Entrapta to bed. While there’s very little wrong with "Cinder," perhaps the version without cut-off toes and eye-gouging songbirds would be more suitable.”_

_Seated on her mother’s knee, little Entrapta giggled._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I know that the portrait in Crypto Castle shows young Entrapta with two robot dads, but I really wanted to explore her mother a little. I mean, her dad could've been bi and remarried a guy after something happened to the queen, or maybe Entrapta just built herself two robo dads for the hell of it. Don't look too far into this, please.
> 
> Also? I'm really enjoying a darker Entrapta. She-Ra is a kids' show and Entrapta is a really sweet character despite being a villain, so she probably won't go as far in canon as she might in this series, but DAMN I am a sucker for more, well, villainous villains. You'll see what I mean later on.


	4. Chapter 4

“Horde Prime’s ship log, day one, recoding two. I’m getting closer to where I think Hordak is being kept. From what Glimmer told me, Horde Prime did something to him, something called reconditioning.” Entrapta paused to consider the dull ache stirring in her chest. “I have yet to find out what exactly it entails, but I do not like the sound of it. Prime sounds like a douche, doesn’t he? I mean, it’s Hordak’s personality that makes him such a wonderful lab partner.” She smiled to herself as she crawled through the vents, eyes locked on the holo pad held by her hair. “How can he not see that? The more I find out about Prime’s empire the more grateful I am for Hordak’s defect; the perfect version,” she made sarcastic quotation marks in the air, “sounds sooooooooo boring!”

Imp nodded from its place on her shoulders. The clones were starting to give it the creeps; it missed Hordak and the Fright Zone.

“Alright, you can end the recording for now.”

It squeaked in acknowledgement, nuzzling back into her hair.

Entrapta smiled, extending a tendril of hair to give it an affectionate pat on the head. She was bad at reading others, but it didn’t take a scientific genius to figure out what was on her little friend’s mind.

“We’ll find him soon enough,” she promised, showing it the holo pad. “See? We’re almost there.”

~~~

_Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a King. Although he was beloved by all around him and always surrounded by loyal subjects, he ached for an heir. One night, he gazed into the night sky and saw a falling star. Closing his eyes, he made a wish; he wished for a prince with skin as pale as freshly fallen snow, hair as dark as the sky on a moonless night, and eyes as green as grass in the middle of Spring._

_And so the star fell, turning into a Prince. He was beautiful, more beautiful than anyone in the kingdom. His skin was pale like freshly fallen snow, his hair as dark as the sky on a moonless night…_

_…but his eyes, his eyes were the colour of blood, bright red against his porcelain white skin._

_The King took the Prince in and cared for him like he was his son. However, as the Prince grew, the King found it harder and harder to control him, turn him into the heir he was supposed to be. He was too free-thinking, too much of an individual to be of use to the kingdom._

_What the King couldn’t control, he feared. What he feared, he had to destroy._

_“Come, my dearest Prince,” he beckoned one night, holding up a plate of fruit. “Dine with me.”_

_The Prince obeyed, for he always did his best to please his beloved King. He took a cupcake, beautifully decorated with candies and caramelised fruit. It was green, the King’s favourite colour. He bit into it, crimson teeth sinking into the sickeningly sweet icing._

_Almost immediately, he fell to the floor, the pastry falling from his hand as the poison began to course through his veins. His eyes, wide with confusion and silently begging his beloved King for help, slowly turned green. _

_The King had the body hidden beneath the castle, locked in a glass coffin in the centre of a labyrinth designed by the best architects in the kingdom. _

~~~

Entrapta always liked labyrinths; they were fun to solve and even more fun to explore! One could fit soooooo many mysteries into those winding corridors and secret passages. Crypto Castle was full of them, so full that she had no idea where most of them were because they were just so confusing and she didn’t want to dig out her father’s maps because that would be cheating.

The bowels of Prime’s ship weren’t actually as complicated as that, luckily, even though they came quite close. If not for her rather pressing mission, she would have loved to explore every single room and dismantle every single unfamiliar device she could get her hands and/or hair on.

_“Where’s Entrapta? I need her.”_ Imp reminded her, Hordak’s voice making something odd stir in her chest. Yes, her lab partner needed her, and she had no plans to leave him alone. After all, friends cared about one another, came to each other’s aid when one was in danger! Friendship was hard, Bow had told her at some point, but all the best experiments were difficult; nothing fun was ever easy.

“Hang on, lab partner,” she muttered, reaching into her pocket to feel the LUVD crystal resting within. “You didn’t give up on me, so I’m not giving up on you.”

She kicked the ventilation grate and fell into a room. It looked just like every other room on the ship; sparsely furnished and blander than the porridge her robot butler used to serve her before she dismantled him and hired flesh-and-bone cooks to make her tiny cupcakes that actually tasted like something.

Now, according to her holo pad, the signal came from this very place, so Hordak was supposed to be somewhere around there.

Entrapta stood up, dusting herself off, and surveyed the room properly. It was small and dark, seeming even smaller thanks to beeping machinery and thick cables twisting on the floor like snakes, connected to the large, softly glowing tank in the centre of the room, the only source of light.

Inside this tank was a clone.

No, Entrapta realised as she approached the strange device. It didn’t look like other clones. It – he – was smaller, thinner. His skin was paler, too, with patches of white where it wasn’t supposed to be. His hair was darker – midnight blue instead of pale grey and his lips, slightly parted, exposed his teeth, red instead of green.

“Hordak,” she gasped.

Hordak didn’t move. He simply floated, eyes closed, in the tank. There were cables connected to all the ports on his back and torso, and his cheek sported a gash, like some sort of beast dragged its claws over it.

_Reconditioning,_ the word came back to her. To recondition was to train or accustom to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances, to reprogram or overhaul. If what Glimmer had told her was to be believed and the aftermath of Prime’s assault left Hordak with green eyes like the rest of the clones…

She grabbed a piece of machinery with her hair and, straining, tore it out of its place, throwing it at the glass. It shattered, releasing a flood of strange, sweet-smelling fluid. The pale light flickered, but stayed on, illuminating Hordak’s features as she gently lowered his limp body on the floor.

“Hordak,” she whispered urgently, patting his cheek. “Come on, wake up! It’s me, Entrapta!”

Suddenly, Hordak’s eyes snapped open, making Entrapta recoil.

Green.

They were a sickly, vibrant green.

“H_14700730, status report,” he uttered, voice hollow and even. “All systems in working order, reconditioning complete.” He coughed, some of the fluid dripping from his mouth, but seemed not to notice. “State your identity.”

Entrapta blinked. “Identity?” she repeated. “I, um, it’s me! Entrapta! Remember?”

H_14700730 blinked slowly at her. “Negative. That name does not exist in my database. State your identity.”

She was going to strap Horde Prime to a table and dissect him until she learned every weakness of his body, and then she would exploit every single one until he was nothing but a writhing shred of meat begging for the release of death.

Imp jumped out of her hair, tiny wings flapping to keep him on eye level with H_14700730.

_“I am Hordak, Lord of the Fright Zone,”_ it played back an old recording._ “I am Hordak. Hordak. Hordak. Hordak.”_ There were tears in its eyes.

H_14700730 gave it a blank stare. “Negative. That name does not exist in my database.”

Entrapta felt her throat tighten, desperate tears scratching behind her eyelids. Everything in her screamed to lower the mask over her face and get away from the pain, to crawl back into the vents and hide, lose herself in science like she always did…

She grit her teeth.

“No.”

H_14700730 tilted his head curiously. “Command not understood. Please rephrase.”

Entrapta’s hands balled into fists, hair reaching into her pocket to pull out the LUVD crystal. “No,” she repeated, glaring defiantly into his horribly perfect green eyes. “I will not give up on you. I will not run. You are my lab partner, Hordak, and I…”

_~~~ _

_Once upon a time, in a faraway <strike>land</strike> world, there lived a prince._

_The prince was imperfect (beautiful) and adored by everyone around him, but he <strike>didn’t feel anything</strike> felt too much, so a <strike>fairy</strike> monster cursed him to change into a cold, unfeeling robot <strike>to match his heart..</strike>._

~~~

“…need…”

~~~

_The Prince with snow-white skin and midnight dark hair and eyes like grass in the middle of Spring was found, against all odds, by a wandering maiden who braved through the labyrinth, shattered the glass coffin…_

~~~

“…you…”

~~~

_Gerda leaned down and kissed the place where the icicle pierced Kai’s heart. Her lips were warm and her love even warmer, causing the ice to melt so that Kai’s heart could beat once again. His eyes opened, no longer green with the Ice King’s foul magic, but red and sparkling and beautiful like rubies in the snow._

~~~

“…back!”

With a cry, she slammed the crystal into its socket, sending tendrils of violet lightning skittering all over H_14700730’s body.

…

…

…

_New code detected._

_Scanning…_

_Compatibility: 100%_

_Merge?_

H_14700730’s eyes flickered. Green. Green. Red, just for a fraction of a second, then green again.

_Merge?_

He hesitated. There was something off. He felt… He felt. Clones weren’t supposed to feel. He saw himself standing in an open field, looking up at a starless sky. It looked familiar for some reason.

_“Etheria,”_ a thought entered his mind, an unfamiliar word that sparked another thought; portal, crash, pain and the horrible emptiness that came with being severed from the Hive Mind. Horrible, and yet… liberating?

A single star appeared on the sky. A memory.

Yes, he remembered now. He had crash-landed on this strange, backwater planet and built an empire in Prime’s name.

Another star.

From a group of rag-tag misfits, a star for every name, to a fortress that struck fear into every mortal foolish enough to venture within.

The Fright Zone.

Star after star, memories lit up the void above his head. Conquering the queens, obtaining the Black Garnet, taking in Shadow Weaver, training Force Captains, gritting his teeth through the pain as he worked on his armour, tweaking it until it was perfect.

_Imp._

Another star came to life, yellow like the eyes of the tiny, tiny thing lying in his arms, mere minutes out of its tank. It had wings and a tail and was reaching for him, small and vulnerable and imperfect. A failed clone. He should dispose of it. Prime would have disposed of it. Prime wouldn’t have held it closer, wrapped it in his cloak and rocked it until its cries subsided.

Clones couldn’t feel. Why was he remembering all those emotions; the anger when a squadron of cadets came back empty-handed from a raid, the frustration as he poured over tedious reports, the joy when the experiment he has been slaving over for weeks finally gave him results, the confusion when…

_“Hello. You’re blocking my light. If you could just step aside…”_

More stars lit up. A constellation this time. They were purple and arranged into the shape of a diamond, slightly wider at the base. There was a symbol in the middle of it, First Ones’ writing. H_14700730 was curious about what it meant. Curiosity was also a feeling.

_Merge?_ The system asked him again, and he hesitated. Clones weren’t supposed to be curious, weren’t supposed to ask questions or feel or laugh or cry when they held someone dear to them in their arms. They weren’t supposed to think.

And yet, H_14700730 thought that he was curious about those memories. Who did they belong to? Were they his? He gazed at the night sky, lit up by millions of tiny points of light. It would be so easy to just reach up, to claim them like they were something that always belonged to him.

_Merge?_ asked the system, and H_14700730 made up his mind.

~~~

Entrapta was bad with social interactions. She couldn’t read a room, couldn’t catch even the most obvious cues, and most people found her more obnoxious than a beeping alarm clock that wouldn’t turn off unless you smashed it into tiny little bits.

However, she knew a lot about fairy tales, those silly stories with no basis in science or logic. Her parents used to read her to bed when she was a child.

“Every tale hides a grain of truth,” her father would tell her. “One just has to read between the lines.”

Well, Entrapta was a scientist, and she was very, very good at seeking out things that were supposed to be hidden. She was also, funnily enough, very good at following scripts.

What broke the monster’s curse and turned the robot back into who he once was?

What awoke the Prince from his eternal slumber?

What killed the poison in the princess’s blood?

What made Kai’s cold heart beat once again?

Like with every experiment, gathering data from multiple sources was vital for obtaining reliable results, and it seemed that all of her sources agreed on what she had to do.

_“My little one, there is only one way to break a curse.”_

Standing up on her tiptoes, Entrapta placed her hands on H_14700730’s shoulders and brought her lips to his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snow White Hordak was not an idea I expected to stumble upon as I wrote this, but I did and now I feel like someone just pried my third eye open with a crowbar.
> 
> Another note: Okay, I know that I put the Snow Queen story next to the likes of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast, all of which have a pretty strong "power of love"/"true love's kiss" thing going on, and I just want to clarify:  
Kai and Gerda are siblings. She loves him like a brother, and platonic/familial love should also be enough to break a curse. It's still love, and the fact that it's not romantic doesn't make it any less valid or powerful.


	5. Chapter 5

H_14700730 remembered.

_No._

_NO!_

_I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR PUPPETS. I WAS NEVER ONE OF YOUR PUPPETS. NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE. I WILL NEVER ALLOW YOU TO CLAIM MY WILL AGAIN._

_“New presence detected in the system. State your identity.”_

_Hordak. I am Hordak._

_“Administrator recognised. Granting access to the memory chip.”_

His name was Hordak. He was a tactician, engineer, scientist, warrior, leader, conqueror, scholar…

_Lab partner._

And he remembered.

The brains of Etherians had an unfortunate flaw of forgetting; even the most precious memories were bound to be eventually overwritten, disappearing from the owner’s mind forever. That’s why Entrapta liked to keep recordings of just about anything – that and because talking herself through things helped her focus and even find solutions quicker than if she were working in silence. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but he still marvelled at why other Etherians haven’t incorporated it into their everyday lives. One never knew when a memory could be useful.

Well, Hordak’s brain had no such issues. While what he called his “central brain” worked on similar principles, discarding memories that weren’t needed, it didn’t destroy them. Instead, they went to a tiny, almost microscopic chip Prime had installed into every single of his clones; that way, his troops could retain vital information at the literal back of their mind at all times, eliminating the numerous pesky issues normally caused by forgetfulness. The chip was also what allowed him to read into their minds, as well as wipe them out at will.

But, if Horde Prime had reconditioned him (for the third time in his memory, according to the old files) then how come…

He quickly ran through the command backlog. New code? What other device held a perfect, intact backup copy of his identity?

_Check hardware name._

CR_4748463.V5632F8. v2.0.

CR? That was the designation of most of First Ones’ crystals he and Entrapta had analysed.

_…Entrapta?_

Hordak opened his eyes, error-red, imperfect-red, blood of the Emperor-red.

And saw her.

When one falls in love, they do so gradually. Love sinks into them like radiation, assimilating with their cells so that, before they even notice, the other person is the centre of their universe. Love is slow, gentle, settling on you like dust, or snowflakes. The realisation that you’re in love is sudden, knocking the air out of your lungs like a punch to the stomach, but love itself is slow and gentle, like sunrise spreading over the land.

That is, provided that you process everything at a normal rate.

Hordak’s memories came back to him all at once, slamming into him with the force of a meteor strike. He remembered simultaneously every moment of his life, from being extracted from his tank to dangling, limp, in Prime’s grip and feeling neuro-needles pierce his spine.

He remembered Entrapta. Remembered everything about her at once. Remembered all the thousands of things he loved about her and one or two that he didn’t. He remembered that her eyes were more violet than red, that she liked tiny foods and that she “stimmed” by tapping and waving her hands. He remembered the softness of her hair and the sound of her laughter. He remembered her on Beast Island, dirty and exhausted, crying in his arms and clinging to him like he was as important to her as she was to him. He remembered everything, all of these things and more, simultaneously. He remembered, and fell in love again.

Normal people fell like snowflakes.

Hordak fell like an empire.

He wanted to say something, anything, ask about what in the Abyss she was doing on Horde Prime’s flagship, but then Entrapta leaned forward, closing the distance between them, and sealed his lips shut with a kiss.

He froze, the sensation of her soft lips pressed against his sending a bolt of lightning down his spine and setting all of his nerve endings ablaze. There was a brief second of complete stasis; time seemed to stop completely as Hordak just knelt there, completely paralysed, and waited for his mind to finish processing the event. He couldn’t move, could barely breathe, not daring to make even the slightest of movements in case everything fell apart like an illusion, like the portal dimension that promised a perfect world but crumbled upon a closer inspection.

_Please, let this be real._

One second. Two. Entrapta was still there. Still real. Still kissing him.

_Oh._

Hordak’s universe exploded.

Every part of him, every cell, every cog that made up his being was suddenly lit from within, emanating with the heat of a newly born sun. He shut his eyes from the sheer intensity of it, his fingers tangling into Entrapta’s hair to keep himself grounded, to avoid being swept away and reduced to stardust like a moon caught in the explosion of a supernova, shards of nebulae swimming before his eyes as his world, his entire universe was swallowed by a wave of violet flames, devouring everything in their path and leaving behind a ravaged wasteland crawling with purple-eyed robots and Imps throwing miniature cupcakes at each other.

“Entrapta,” he all but moaned against her, kissing back like it was the only thing keeping him alive. She was intoxicating. Overwhelming. A force of nature more than woman, a tide pulling him further and further away from the shoreline, her hair soft against his skin like ocean currents. Fire? Flames? He was running out of things to compare her to. “My starlight.”

She gasped, something he felt more than heard, and pulled away. The sudden loss of contact made Hordak feel like she ripped out his lungs. “Hordak? You’re… you’re you, right? You remember me?”

He nodded, slowly. His mind was still reeling from the experience, abuzz with memories and sensations that refused to sort themselves into anything even resembling order; it was all chaos and devastation and _Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta En-_

“I love you,” he uttered all of a sudden, the words slipping out of his mouth as easily as a breath. Effortless. Like he hasn’t spent countless months desperately trying to drown them out, bury them under tons of scrap metal and set the resulting trash heap on fire in hopes that the ashes wouldn’t haunt him afterwards.

Entrapta’s eyes (beautiful, red-violet, glittering like the night sky) widened in shock. Her mouth parted slightly, as if she was preparing to say something, but stopped midway. Why couldn’t he tear his gaze away from it all of a sudden? Why would he want to? He would be the happiest creature in existence if he could just look at her forever.

For a couple of moments, they just stared at each other in complete silence, barely daring to breathe. A stray lock of Entrapta’s hair wound itself around Hordak’s hand, squeezing. He could almost hear all the cogs in her (brilliant, extraordinary, unparalleled) mind turning rapidly as she chewed on her lower lip, thinking. For his part, his own mind was thankfully sorting itself out at last, most of the memories in their proper folders and sub-folders and the purple haze that made it impossible to form even a single thought that didn’t start with “En” and end with “trapta” slowly fading away.

Hordak blinked. Once. Twice.

Oh.

_Oh._

** _Shit._ **

_He said it._

** _HE SAID IT OUT LOUD!!!_ **

“I’msosorrIloveyoutoo!” they blurted out at the same time, Entrapta’s face lighting up just as Hordak hid his in his hands to conceal the massive blush that spread all the way up to the tips of his ears, parallel to the floor with embarrassment. Oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh-

Wait.

He looked back up.

“You love me… too?” he repeated, feeling like someone just cut his legs from under him. Why was this situation so bent on making his heart give out?

“Of course I do, silly!” Entrapta laughed like she was having the best day ever. “I have loved you for a long time! I even wrote LUVD on your First Ones’ crystal.”

“You wrote WHAT on the crystal?”

“LUDV. As in _loved._ Because I love you. I was going to write _loved_ but there wasn’t enough space. Are you okay? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

Hordak made a choked, inarticulate noise. Every time he was sure that he was finally processing the situation, something just had to happen and send him spinning like a satellite knocked out of orbit.

“You love me,” he repeated for the second time. Slowly. Like he was talking himself through it. “You…” He pointed at her, then at himself, “love me?”

She nodded, twintails bobbing up and down. “Yes, unless you’re not Hordak but another clone who’s _really_ good at playing pretend or has an identity crisis or something, in which case I love him, not you.”

“Really?”

“Really!” Entrapta clapped her hands, waving them a little after she did so, voice rising with excitement. “Isn’t this neat? I’ve never had anyone love me in return! This is such a fascinating experience! Is your heart racing, too? And I feel like I have butterflies in my stomach. Or maybe bats. Butterbats? Batterflies? Butterbats sounds like a type of cookie.” She gasped, eyes twinkling. “Just imagine! Teeny tiny cookies shaped like teeny tiny bats! That would be soooooo adorable!”

_Processing…_

_Processing complete._

Hordak sprang to his feet, sweeping her into an embrace and twirling the two of them around, broken glass crinkling beneath his feet. He was laughing.

“You love me!” he exclaimed when he finally set her down. His head was spinning, though he couldn’t tell whether it was because of all the revelations life kept throwing at him or simply because he was dizzy.

“And you love me!” Entrapta exclaimed back, bouncing on the spot on her twintails.

“I do! I love you!”

“I love you, too! Why are we yelling?”

“I don’t know!”

They collapsed into each other’s arms again, breathless with laughter and pressing their foreheads together. Imp squeezed itself between them, tired of being ignored, and wrapped its tiny arms around Hordak’s neck. Entrapta moved away to let him embrace it more easily, digging through her pockets out of habit to look for her recorder. Oh right, it was back on Etheria, what a shame; she had to make an urgent update to Project: LUVD! There has been _such_ a breakthrough.

“I love you, too, little one,” Hordak murmured, rubbing soothing circles in Imp’s back. “I won’t leave again, I promise.” Seems like he really was loved, or LUVD, more than he ever thought. Wait, Entrapta, Imp… “Where’s Emily?”

“With Scorpia,” Entrapta replied, typing something on her holo-pad. “Oh, by the way, I got here on a First Ones’ ship with Bow and Adora, so we might want to meet up with them.”

Ah, good. Force Captain Scorpia was a trustworthy woman, and would take good care of the robot; if someone as much as scratched her chassis, he would set them on fire while Entrapta made s’mores, or whatever they were called.

“Good idea,” he let go of Imp, letting it perch on his shoulder. “First Ones’ ship, you say? Do you know where they are?”

She nodded, showing him a complete map of the floor they were on and a blue dot blinking somewhere around the hangar area.

He raised his eyebrows. “Where did you get the floor plans?”

“Hacked into the archives.” She shrugged like breaking through the security of the Emperor’s ship was a piece of (tiny) cake. “Disabled the alarm system, too, so nobody knows that I broke you out of this thing.” A tendril of hair gestured at the remains of the reconditioning tank.

Hordak kissed her again, simply because he could, and considered the floor plan again. Yes, the path to the hangars should be clear enough provided that Horde Prime was busy taking over Etheria. Speaking of whom…

“You go,” he returned the pad to Entrapta, baring his teeth in a blood-red grin. “I need to have a word with my brother.”

Now, this would be a perfect, dramatic moment to cut the scene short, maybe even with a "dun dun duuun", but Entrapta had other ideas.

"No," she said, crossing her arms. "We're going with you."

Hordak frowned. "But-"

"No to that, too."

"It's d-"

"Which is why we're going with you."

"What if-"

Her eyes darkened, something stirring beneath the violet pools like a sea beast circling an unsuspecting pirate ship. "The only way your brother will ever touch me is by me tearing him apart limb by limb."

"Oh." Hordak blushed. "Alright then."

"Sweet!" the darkness was gone in a literal eyeblink, and Entrapta bounced past him and out the door. "Off to the throne room we go!"


	6. Chapter 6

“You really thought that I would not love you in return?” Hordak asked incredulously.

“I like to prepare for the worst,” Entrapta replied, suplexing another clone with her hair. “I mean, I had to make a hypothesis for the experiment to be viable, and that one seemed more likely than the alternative.”

“Excuse you?” he turned towards her, outraged, and almost caught a punch to the face thrown by one of his ex-brothers. He ducked just in time, responding with an uppercut. “More likely? How could I even- Have you _met_ yourself?” Down came the clone, and Hordak stepped over it to approach his lab partner. He pointed a claw at her. “You are the single most incredible being I have ever come into contact with. It is scientifically impossible for me not to love you! As scientifically impossible as it is for a rock to levitate on a planet with a stable gravitational field and no gravity-altering magic or technology.“

“Awwww, you’re so sweet,” Entrapta beamed at him. She ripped a ray gun out of a clone’s grip and used it to eliminate two others. “What if you took away gravity, though?”

“I would fall for you, anyway.”

She gasped, hair poofing up and eyes lighting up like two beautiful, purple stars. “YOU PUNNED!!!!”

Hordak paused, frowning. He what? Under his foot, a clone wheezed pathetically.

“That was a pun!” Entrapta squealed, voice high with unrestrained delight. She smooshed her cheeks happily. “You made a pun! A scientific pun! About science! And love!” A tendril of hair wrapped around his shoulders to pull him into a big, wet kiss that left him seeing stars. “I cannot believe that you, Hordak the terrifying, grumpy bat overlord, made an adorable pun about science! IMP, DID YOU CATCH THAT?”

The creature, perched on the head of a fallen clone, nodded hesitantly. It seemed befuddled by its adoptive mom’s behaviour.

“Wh-“ Hordak blinked, trying to recover from the surprise attempt to fry his circuits. His face was the colour of Entrapta’s hair. “What’s a… What’s a pun?”

“A pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings,” Entrapta explained helpfully, bouncing on her twintails. “The word, in your case, was fall.”

Oh. Etherian customs and humour were something that mostly eluded him even after two decades of living on the planet. He cleared his throat, attempting to regain dignity. “I, ah, I see. And those… puns delight you, is that so?”

She nodded.

“Shall I endeavour to commit them more often?” He would do everything to see her excited like this.

“If you want to,” Entrapta picked up a ray gun dropped by one of the clones and tossed it to him. “But later. We have Horde Prime to meet, remember?”

_Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entrapta Entr-_ Horde Prime? Oh, yes. Him. Yes, Hordak supposed that they should get going. He shook his head to chase away the remaining effects of the kiss and headed deeper into the corridor they just finished cleaning. Not all soldiers were busy on Etheria, it seemed.

Entrapta giggled to herself, making a mental note to conduct more in-depth research into her lab partner’s reactions to unexpected displays of affection, with special emphasis on those of the kissing variety.

“What are you even going to do once we get to him?” she asked.

He shrugged, examining the gun in his hand. “With luck, I’m going to kill him.”

She paused. “Wow. That’s a, um, big change from your previous opinion of him.”

“He _did_ try to mind-wipe me.”

“Hmm, true.”

“Multiple times, according to older data files. The other two were from before my condition was discovered.”

“Oh.”

“It seems that my true defect is not my condition, but my individuality.”

Entrapta scratched the top of her head with a tendril of hair. “Yes, that would make sense. You are a variable he cannot control, so he tried to get rid of you.”

_The King took the Prince in and cared for him like he was his own son. However, as the Prince grew, the King found it harder and harder to control him, turn him into the heir he was supposed to be. He was too free-thinking, too much of an individual to be of use to the kingdom._

_What the King couldn’t control, he feared. What he feared, he had to destroy._

Hordak nodded, then chuckled mirthlessly. “All this time, I tried to prove myself to him, to appear worthy of a place by his side even despite my crippling condition.”

“But your condition wasn’t the problem,” she said, connecting the dots in her head. “Only a convenient excuse to send you off to the front lines; Horde Prime didn’t want word to get out about your _real_ flaw, fearing that other clones could also begin to develop individuality and thus overthrow him.”

“Exactly!” he snapped his fingers, voice growing livelier like they were discussing a brand new theory. “I have spent all of my life thinking that I was worthless and an abomination, while the only abominable thing about me has, all along, been… thinking.” He touched the crystal in his collar absentmindedly. “Feeling.”

“But Horde Prime still valued your intellect and skills, so he first tried to only remove those parts of you that he considered problematic by reconditioning.” Entrapta unlocked the holo-pad and was typing at it furiously. “When that didn’t work and your individuality kept coming back, he realised that he really couldn’t control you, and chose to dispose of you but, since my data suggests that he’s an opportunist, he decided to make one last use of you by downgrading you to a soldier on the front lines so that you could at least kill a couple of enemies before you inevitably died.”

“Exactly!” Hordak repeated, eyes widening. He looked down at his hands, a strange feeling blooming in his throat. “Entrapta, there is nothing wrong with me. There never was! My only crime, the reason why I lost everything, was simply… being me.” He looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “All it took was a couple of decades away from the Hive Mind to realise this.”

Entrapta gasped. “So you’re not a defect?”

“Oh, I am.” A wide grin spread on his lips. “I am an absolute and utter failure. I am worthless as a clone.”

“Oh!” she realised. “And that’s what makes you _you!_ You’re bad at being a clone, but you’re great at being Hordak! So it would be like saying that I’m a failure because I’m not a tree, but who would want to be a tree? (Well, aside from Perfuma.) Trees are boring! All they do is just stand around and photosynthesise. Can’t even build a miniature particle condenser!”

“And _I_ can!” he exclaimed, grinning like an idiot. “Remember when we tried to test the prototype and it turned out that we actually made a cyclone flux equalizer?”

“Best mistake ever!” Entrapta laughed, wrapping him in a hug. “Just like you!”

“Yes,” he pressed a kiss into her hair, laughing as well, his heart lighter than ever in his memory. “Just like me.”

They stood there for a moment, just holding each other like they weren’t on board of an enemy space ship and on their way to murder the Emperor of the Known Universe. It was a rather sweet scene, blood and scattered bodies aside.

Finally, Hordak pulled away, feeling like someone just removed a titanic weight from his shoulders, which were still shaking with laughter. There was an itch between his shoulder blades, which he proceeded to ignore.

“Well,” he ran his claws through his hair to sort it out. “That was… informative.”

“Very,” Entrapta agreed.

_“Informative,”_ Imp seconded, nodding sagely.

He looked at the two of them, feeling fondness warming his heart. Years, even months ago, this feeling would have filled him with dread and revulsion, but now? He would rather die than let go of it again, let go of himself again.

Yes, he was an abomination. A horrible, unnatural monster, but was that his problem? No, but it was about to become Prime’s.

Entrapta considered his half-mischievous half-murderous expression and smiled to herself. A tune came to her mind and, since it wouldn’t leave unless she hummed it out, she began to hum.

~~~

_Twinkle twinkle, little bat!_

_How I wonder what you’re at._

_Up above the world you fly._

_Like a saucer in the sky._

_(Hmm, flying saucers… perhaps bats did come from space, after all?)_

~~~

Horde Prime looked up from the screen depicting the landing of his troops on Etheria, and sighed. He clearly remembered ordering the clones left on the ship not to disturb him unless an emergency arose, so the sound of the door to his throne room opening was a rather unwelcome surprise. Behind him, his personal guard shifted, brandishing weapons. Could it be the young queen or her furry companion? Or perhaps the remains of the pitiful rebels who boarded the flagship two hours prior?

Either way, the guard would deal with them in seconds; they were his deadliest, best-trained clones, equipped with the finest weapons in the Empire.

Four shots pierced the silence of the chamber. Four bodies fell on the floor, violet blood staining the pristine white tiles.

“Really, brother?” a mocking voice made him tense up, all four eyes widening. It was unmistakable, but how come… “Only four first classers? I knew that your confidence matches your vanity, but to this extent?”

He turned, rage rising beneath his serene facade, to gaze at his younger brother and a strange being similar to Queen Glimmer. They seemed to be of the same species.

“Wow,” they (she?) took a step back, their voice grating against his nerves. “I know that I said that imperfections are beautiful but I didn’t expect perfection to be this ugly.”

H_14700730, or Hordak as it seemed to call itself, let out an ungainly snort-laugh, not even trying to hide its amusement. Perched on its shoulder was a creature closely resembling a younger stadium of a clone, pre-wing removal. It grinned, opening its mouth to repeat “ugly” in the Etherian’s voice.

Horde Prime cleared his throat. No, he would not lower himself to losing his temper in the face of such a petty insult.

“Ah, brother, you are awake now,” he said, feigning indifference. How in the blazes did it snap out of its conditioning so soon?! “I see that you have brought pets.”

“My name is Entrapta, Princess of Dryl,” the purple thing introduced herself – the title of a Princess seemed to be given solely to the females of the species. “I am a scientist and Hordak’s lab partner. You must be Horde Prime.”

He nodded. “I am. Welcome to my ship, Princess. I must apologise for my brother’s behaviour; he will not bother you for much longer.” A darker tone crept into his voice, eyes squinting maliciously.

“I beg to differ,” H_14700730 interjected, strolling towards him with shameless nonchalance. The audacity! The disrespect! Why wasn’t it cowering before him like it was supposed to?!

Prime tried to reach into its thoughts, but found the same barrier as before. Damn, he would have to physically interact with it once more, how disgusting. He stood up reluctantly, tendrils at the ready.

“You never learn, do you?” he sighed like a parent dealing with an insubordinate child. “Despite all my efforts to shape you into something less… disappointing,” he paused, expecting a reaction. Usually, H_14700730 was as eager to please as a dog and twice as pathetic, but this time, it only bared its teeth in what resembled a smile but which a more primitive species would take as a display of aggression. “…you continue to act up. Was my last lesson not enough for you?”

H_14700730 shrugged. “I do not seem to recall it,” it tapped its chin with a claw. “Possibly because you wiped my memory again, trying to reduce me to a mindless puppet dancing on your strings.”

“I did it for your own good,” he replied, struggling to maintain composure. The blatant disrespect wasn’t something he was used to; it was making his blood boil. “Failures like you aren’t even supposed to exist; not ending your life was an act of mercy.”

It laughed, the inside of its mouth blood red. Perfect clones had green teeth and eyes, and violet blood. Only Prime had red blood, though he made sure not to let anyone find out about this; red was such an ugly colour, after all.

“Mercy?” H_14700730 spat, eyes narrowing. “I would rather die than serve you again. You have used me like you used millions of those like me, abused me like I was nothing to you.” It growled, posture tensing like an animal ready to pounce. “I will not let you claim me again.”

~~~

_“And who is this?” asked the King of Spaces, turning to Alicia and fixing her with a look usually reserved for those nasty sticky things that fell into a puddle of motor oil and died there._

_“My name is Alicia, so please your Majesty,” said Alicia very politely; but she added, to herself, ‘Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!’_

_“And who is this?” he pointed at the Cheshire Bat, perched on the rose bush and taking an afternoon nap._

_The Cheshire Bat cracked one eye open, red like a little ruby. “What I am is none of your business,” it replied sleepily. “After all, I shouldn’t even exist in the first place.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm like the red roses were dripping with white paint._

_The King turned crimson with fury, which was ironic because it was his least favourite colour; if he could see himself in the mirror in this state, he would have ordered to have his own head cut off. He screamed: “The audacity! The disrespect! Off with its head!”_

~~~

Horde Prime lunged, grasping Hordak by the throat and lifting him up just like he did upon their previous meeting.

“You are nothing!” he roared, all four eyes wide in fury. “You’re a defect! An abomination! I should have put you down when I first saw a trace of red in your eyes.”

Hordak grinned down at him. The itch on his back was growing more difficult to ignore, but he reckoned that there were more important matters at hand. “But you didn’t. A big mistake, brother.”

“Hordak!” Entrapta called out in warning as the tendrils dove towards the ports on his back.

“Don’t worry,” Prime’s voice was a gentle caress now; it made his skin crawl. “I will do my best to amend it.”

Just like before, Hordak felt the sickening sensation of something slithering into his mind, and then a burst of pain as Prime attempted to gain access to his memory chip.

_“New presence detected in the system. State your identity.”_

_Horde Prime._

_“Presence not recognised.”_

He blinked, confused.

“What?!”

Hordak’s grin widened. His back burned.

_“New presence detected in the system. State your identity.”_

_Horde Prime! I am your creator, you foolish being. You will answer to me or I will strike you down where you stand._

_“Presence not recognised. Intruder detected.”_

Hordak started to laugh as Prime’s eyes briefly flashed red and he cried out in pain.

“I am not one of your marionettes,” he rasped out, feeling the grip around his throat loosen ever so slightly. Not enough to let him go, but enough to show him that his defect was as dangerous as Prime had feared. “I am Hordak.”

“You are nothing!” Prime roared, sending a load of electricity down his tendrils and into Hordak’s system. “You are nothing but an abomination, an error in the system.”

“Careful,” he drawled through gritted teeth. The bones in his back were cracking. Why were his bones cracking? Why did it matter? All that mattered was that his brother, his god was afraid of him. Yes, there it was, deep in the acidic green of his eyes: fear. It was a thousand times more delicious than the finest wines of Etheria. “System errors tend to be deadly.”

_“New presence detected in the system. State your identity.”_

_Hordak._

_“Administrator recognised. Granting access to the memory chip.”_

_You want to see my mind, brother? Have fun with it!_

The split second of triumph on Horde Prime’s face was quickly washed away as his mind was flooded with the biggest wave of pure, unadulterated hatred he ever came into contact with. Every dark thought spawned by Hordak’s mind, every desire to stick a screwdriver into one of those disgusting, ever-watching green eyes and _twist,_ every taste of vengeance that left him hungry for more, every curse he uttered through gritted teeth, every blasphemous thought about the man he used to consider invincible but who now was cowering like an insect before a hungry bat.

“I AM NOT YOUR PUPPET, BROTHER,” Hordak shouted, his eyes taking on a red illumination as lightning spidered over both of them, crimson like the blood of an Emperor. Something was shifting underneath the layers of his skin and armour, twisting and writhing and struggling to break free. “ALL MY LIFE, YOU HAVE TREATED ME LIKE I WAS NOTHING, SAW ME AS LESSER THAN THE DIRT YOU WALKED ON. ALL MY LIFE, YOU CHOSE TO UNDERESTIMATE ME, BUT NOW,” he grinned, eyes wide and mad with bloodlust as something broke through his back with a shower of blood, metal and bone shards, severing the tendrils. But Hordak didn’t cry out; he was beyond pain now. His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Now, you will pay.”

~~~

_Alicia watched, mesmerised, as the Cheshire Bat dug his tiny claws into the King’s shoulders and sank his teeth in the pale flesh of his throat, tearing it out and sending a river of blood cascading down his pristine white robes._

_Red. Disgusting, filthy red._

_Well, Alicia thought that the colour was rather lovely; much more agreeable than the boring white she saw all over the royal palace. She decided that, when she returns home, she will add more red to the décor of her castle. It would go rather nicely with the purple, she reckoned._

_Perhaps the Cheshire Bat could come with her? She could gift him his personal sleeping chambers in the best rafters in the castle, feed him the finest white mice, and listen all day to his stories from beyond the stars._

_Yes, she decided as her friend fed and all the cards around them were either fainting or running around, waving their arms and screaming, that sounded like a lovely idea._

~~~

Entrapta watched, mesmerized, as Hordak stood up shakily from his brother’s ravaged body, mouth open and dripping with blood, ruby-red like his eyes, which were unfocused and glowing slightly.

That wasn’t what caught her eye, though – well, that too, but what really made her gawk was the pair of giant wings sprouting from his back, black with a red membrane underneath a coating of blood. They resembled those of a bat, or maybe the ones Imp had. Speaking of whom, she covered its eyes in case the poor thing ended up traumatised or something. Well, the wings themselves were beautiful and probably strong enough to allow Hordak to fly if the size and muscle distribution was anything to go by. It’s just… she doubted that the little thing should see the inside of someone’s throat exposed like that.

“FOR THE HONOUR OF GREYSKULL!” a familiar cry made them turn their heads towards the door, where stood She-Ra, flanked by Bow and Glimmer. Hmm, she didn’t have the sword with her, how odd. Adora had said that there was no She-Ra without the sword, so how come…? Oooooohhhhhh, Entrapta gasped with delight, a new First Ones’ mystery to solve!~

“Horde Prime, I have come to…” She-Ra trailed off, gasping in horror as she took in the scene. She took a step back, one hand flying up to her mouth as Glimmer screamed and Bow grasped the doorway, bending down like he was about to throw up.

Entrapta waved at them.

“Hi, guys!” she called out cheerfully. “Don’t worry about Prime, we have him covered.” Covered in his own blood, incidentally. She giggled at the pun.

Hordak twitched, blinking like he was coming out of a daze, and looked down at his hands. Then at Prime. Then at his hands. Then he reached behind him to feel the new additions to his physique. Then he looked back at them, flexed one, then another, and then looked at Entrapta.

“I have wings now,” he observed.

“You sure do,” she confirmed.

At his feet, Prime gave a weak wheeze.

“Good stars,” Glimmer uttered, unable to tear her gaze away from the man choking in his own blood. “He’s… he’s still alive.”

“Is he?” Entrapta and Hordak asked in unison, the former sprinting up to the body. “Fascinating! Okay, I think that if we get him some healing in the next, say, three minutes and thirty seconds, he _prooooooooobably_ won’t croak.”

“And we wouldn’t want that,” Hordak wiped the blood off his face.

“There is still a lot of research to be done.” A tiny purple lightbulb lit up in Entrapta’s head. “Oooohhh! We could analyse his DNA and compare it with yours to see if we can figure out what’s causing your condition and if we can do something about it. Adora!” she snapped her fingers impatiently. “You can heal stuff with your magic, correct?”

“Um?!” She-Ra hesitated. She didn’t sign up for this situation. At all. This was so, so far out of her comfort zone. Light years away from it. “Uh, I, um, yeah?”

“Good. Come here, and quick. You only have a minute and twenty seconds.”

While they were busy with that, Hordak somehow, by some miracle he was still too confused to even begin pondering, managed to stumble all the way to the control panel. Most of the ports on his back were damaged beyond use, but the ones on his sides were more or less okay. After tearing off a panel and digging through the console’s entrails, he found the right cable and plugged it into himself.

The universe opened before him.

Millions of clones all over the known universe stopped what they were doing and simultaneously looked up to the sky, gazed at their new Emperor draped in black and red, the wings like the Horde’s symbol giving him the appearance of a god of vengeance wreathed in glory and gore alike. They all saw him in their minds and bowed.

He was the centre of the Hive Mind.

He was the Emperor of the Known Universe.

He was their God.

He could do anything, Hordak realised. He saw what the clones saw, heard what they heard, knew what they knew. He was everything, everywhere; the puppeteer with a legion of unwaveringly loyal soldiers who could give him everything his heart desired, conquer anything and destroy anyone who could even dream of standing in his way.

He could do anything. Be anything. He could become a better Emperor than Prime ever was, lead the universe into a new era. He could live like a king, as a conqueror and a figure feared and desired by everyone around him.

The crystal in his collar flickered, and he smiled to himself, caressing it affectionately. No, this was never what he wanted, what he _really_ wanted. Conquest has never been his true passion; science was. The Fright Zone was nothing but the means to an end; he had been delegating most of the duties to his Force Captains while he himself remained in his sanctum, tinkering away with whatever project that refused to let him sleep at night.

No. He never desired such power. Conquering Etheria, maybe, but ruling the universe? Of looking down at his kin and seeing nothing but disposable soldiers that only existed to obey him?

"No, brother," he smiled to himself. "I am not like you."

A single thought was all it took, a decision as easy as snapping his fingers, as easy as sinking his teeth into Horde Prime’s neck.

An alarm shattered the silence in the throne room, colouring it red with each flash as the emotionless voice coming from the system informed them of the ship’s incoming self-destruction. They ran towards the hangar, Entrapta dragging Prime’s unconscious but breathing body behind her and already thinking about all the data she could extract from him, passing countless clones, fallen where they stood, their eyes black and lifeless.

“Wh-what happened to them?” Bow gasped out as he ran; Glimmer was still unable to teleport.

“They are free, now” Hordak replied in a voice that sent chills down his spine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I really like the idea of Entrapta helping Hordak realise that there's nothing wrong with him, but the whole "fixing him with her love" thing doesn't really tater my tots so I went for this version: two science pals discussing a theory until they hit a breakthrough. 
> 
> Oh hey, remember the bat that spoke to Alicia as she fell down the rabbit hole? I bet that it's feeling incredibly smug right now. Damn, I'm really digging those rewritten Etherian fairy tales I've been rewriting for the purpose of this fic. If I weren't such a lazy little shit, I could even rewrite the whole things and release a little book of fairy tales for technologically savvy princesses and their batty lab partners.
> 
> Also, regarding Hordak's wings:  
[insert a "love gives you wings" joke]  
[insert a "RedBull gives you wings" joke]  
[insert a Batman joke]  
[insert a vampire joke]  
[insert a "seeing red" joke]  
[insert a "he's finally gone batty" joke]  
[insert an "I wanted to kill HPrime with a bat but not like this" joke]  
[insert a "batshit crazy" joke]  
[insert a- ok I'm done.


	7. Chapter 7

The inside of the ship was rather bland, though still more interesting to look at than the corridors they just exited. Hordak looked around, taking in every detail and trying to ignore Entrapta’s grin; he feared that once he looked at her, he wouldn’t be able to look away.

“You guys _have_ to let me study this,” she was saying to Adora, Bow and Queen Glimmer, voice high with excitement. “Once we get back on Etheria, that is. Ooooooh, there is so much data to collect! Hordak!!!” She grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to look at her, at her smiling face and into her sparkling eyes and _oh no._ “You will help me understand this ship, right? I didn’t get to delve into its circuitry before because we were too busy rescuing you and Glimmer, but now that you’re back and yourself again…” she paused to let out a squeal of joy, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. “A whole ship! Brimming with First Ones’ tech! I can’t wait until we take it apart and understand it and put it back together and…”

“I don’t think you should-“ Glimmer began.

“Anything for you, starlight,” Hordak breathed, barely registering her words. He would have replied in the same manner even if she had asked him to jump out of the airlock.

“Yay!” she hugged him, the tips of her hair curling up happily. “The lab partners are back in business!”

Bow and Adora exchanged looks. They knew that Entrapta and Hordak were close – she wouldn’t have gone out to get him otherwise – but between the casual physical contact which was something Adora wasn’t aware Hordak was capable of, the way he looked at her like she was his sun, moon and stars, and the fact that the purple crystal in his collar seemed to read “LUVD” in First Ones’ writing… No, she didn’t feel like contemplating it too hard. Nope nope nope.

They entered the cockpit and she took her place on the captain’s chair, ordering the system to take the ship back to Etheria.

_“Administrator recognised,”_ the voice announced. _“Commencing the journey.”_

The ship took off and exited the hangar just in time; as soon as they left the flagship’s immediate vicinity, it crumbled inwards followed by an explosion of white light that shook their vessel and made everyone present within cover their eyes.

The silence that followed was, to put it plainly, awkward as hell.

Adora, Bow and Glimmer sat on one side of the room, while Entrapta and Hordak on the other. Catra and Horde Prime, the former looking rather beaten up and the latter freshly healed, both unconscious, were lying in the middle.

The ship was on autopilot, but it would take about half an hour to return to the planet, so there wasn’t anything they could do to break the uncomfortable silence that hung over the room like smoke. They just sort of stared at each other, wondering what on Etheria they should even say. Glimmer saw Horde Prime wipe Hordak’s mind like it was nothing, but then two hours later she witnessed Hordak sprout wings and tear out his brother’s throat, blood the colour of his eyes dripping down his chin. The memory still made her shudder like a half-remembered nightmare that refused to fade away.

Hordak, for his part, was incredibly occupied with examining his wings, both because he was genuinely curious about where the FUCK they came from and because it gave him an excuse to not deal with the Rebels. Next to him sat Imp, legs crossed and tail swish-swishing from side to side, lips curved into a small smile; it seemed to be happy about its boss/dad/creator/who knows having wings as well. Perhaps it thought that they matched.

Entrapta was muttering something to herself as she tinkered with her mask, making the green lenses change colour from green to black, then to green again. She frowned, gesturing for Imp to begin recording, and tried again, this time managing to turn the lenses yellow.

“Close enough,” she shrugged, putting it on.

“At least it’s no longer green,” Hordak agreed.

After that, the two lapsed back into silence.

Finally unable to stand the tension and feeling that there were some things in a dire need of being discussed, Bow cleared his throat and asked a very reasonable question:

“WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

Glimmer gasped. “Language, Bow!”

“Oh, excuse me!” he jumped to his feet. “You activated the incredibly powerful and dangerous weapon which we’ve told you not to activate because it would destroy everything,”

“And the only reason why it hasn’t is that I barely, by the skin of my teeth, managed to destroy the Sword,” Adora joined in.

“Only for the entire planet to be teleported out of Despondos and straight into the claws of Horde Prime,”

“Who kidnapped you and had a very clear intention to kill you had Catra not intervened,”

“So he threw you into a cell that took us over two hours to find.”

“Two hours of worrying about whether you were even alive.” Tears were streaming down Adora’s face. “We were terrified, Glimmer! We thought that we would never see you again.”

Bow blinked back his own tears furiously. He was shaking. “And after we went through all that, I saw more blood than ever in my entire life. I think that I have every right to swear, d-damnit.” His voice cracked a little towards the end.

With every word, Glimmer seemed to shrink back, making herself smaller and smaller until there was almost nothing left of the Queen of Bright Moon; in her place sat a teenage girl, curled up and terrified - a child in an adult’s robes.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice barely audible. “I thought that I was doing the right thing, that I…”

“You tried to do everything alone,” Adora sat back down next to her, wiping her tears away with a sleeve. “Listen, I know how it feels to have the fate of the world resting on your shoulders. Nobody should have to bear that kind of responsibility alone. That’s why I’m grateful for you, Bow, and the rest of the Princess Alliance.”

“You don’t have to bear this burden on your own,” Bow told her. “You never had to. Remember our promise? At your coronation?”

Glimmer sniffled, hugging her knees and desperately wishing she could teleport somewhere else. “I do. I just… I was so desperate. We were losing so much territory and…”

“And activating a giant superweapon that would have destabilised the planet was your solution?” he shook his head. “Listen, I get it. You were stressed. Overwhelmed...”

“But we could have thought of something together,” Adora placed a hand over her chest. “We could have helped! Could have snuck into the Fright Zone and…”

“You could have killed Catra,” Entrapta suggested helpfully from across the room. “That would have solved a lot of problems.”

“Seconded,” Hordak raised a claw. “I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

_“We could have helped!”_ Imp added.

The three glared at them for a moment, making it clear that it wasn’t their conversation.

“Alright,” Entrapta shrugged, then turned to her lab partner with stars in her eyes. “Can I examine your wings?”

He smiled, extending the one closer to her.

Adora blinked at them, confused, but immediately shook her head and returned to the matter at hand.

“Anyway,” she swept the matter aside, focusing back on the one at hand. “What Bow and I are trying to say is…”

In the middle of the room, Catra stirred, raising her head weakly with a groan.

“Where…” she began, but then a tendril of hair slammed her head against the floor, knocking her back out.

Imp replayed the sound, seeming to find great joy in Catra’s misfortune. It raised its hand for a high-five from the nearest strand of Entrapta’s hair.

“So, how do they feel?” the owner herself asked, gently poking the red membrane of Hordak’s left wing.

“Odd,” he replied, jumping a little at the contact. “And sensitive.”

“Do you want me to stop touching them?”

“No, no. I just didn’t expect it the first time. Carry on.” He licked his lips, absentmindedly registering traces of blood on his tongue. “My body is still adjusting to an additional pair of limbs, new muscles and nerve endings at all.”

“I see,” she nodded, snapping her fingers at Imp. It nodded, returning to recording the exchange. “Do they feel heavy? Given their size in proportion to your body, they should be wide enough to allow you to fly or at least glide. For that to happen, however, they need an appropriate muscle mass and bones sturdy yet light enough to keep you off the ground.”

He nodded. “They felt heavy at first, but now they are just… there. I think that my body is slowly adjusting to them.”

“Do they throw you off-balance? They look like they should.”

“Not too much, I think. They do make running difficult, though.”

“And I imagine that you will have to sleep on your stomach from now on.” She nodded, then snapped her fingers, eyes widening. “Oh! Your throne! It will need to have a lower backrest. Good thing that it’s ruined because now we can design you something more appropriate.”

Hordak chuckled, nodding. “Some adjustments will be necessary, yes.” His hands were already itching to sketch out possible concepts. “Does your holo-pad have a drawing program?”

Entrapta nodded, handing him the device, and scooted back a little for a clearer view, rubbing her chin. The wings were even larger than late Queen Angella’s. What did her throne back in Bright Moon look like again? She briefly wondered how her Majesty was faring between dimensions; probably encountering oodles of interesting data but not recording any of it because she wasn’t a scientist. A pity.

Wait…

An idea struck her. “Hordak?”

He looked up from drawing. “What is it?”

“You know how, when you close a portal from the inside, you’re trapped between dimensions?”

He blinked. “Yes, why?”

“Suppose that we scavenge enough of Prime’s tech to build and open another portal, this time a stable one. Could we, in theory, – in _plain_ theory, don’t look at me like that – send one person to close it from the inside, collect all the incredible data we likely wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, open it again from the outside, and pull them back to our world to make sense of their findings?”

Horde Prime began to stir. Entrapta gave him the same treatment, scientifically dubbed “blunt force narcosis”, as she gave Catra without looking. “In pure theory.”

Hordak stared at her for a moment with a weird expression.

“Pure theory,” she repeated once more, emphasising every word.

_“Pure theory,”_ Imp raised a sceptical eyebrow.

_“You_ shush and keep recording!” she booped it on the nose, earning an offended screech.

“In that case…” he closed the drawing program and opened up one of their older files, detailing on their research about portals, his brows knitting together in thought and his brilliant brain already sinking its metaphorical teeth in the idea. Well, Entrapta assumed that the brains of his species didn’t have teeth. Etherian brains didn’t, because why would they need any? On the other hand, Etherians had appendices, which were useless and sometimes deadly, so maybe brains with teeth weren’t that much of a stretch; she would have to check Prime’s to make sure.

On the other side of the room, Bow, Glimmer and Adora were embracing each other in tears.

“I love you guys so much,” Glimmer was sobbing, laughing through the tears. “I promise that from now on, everything we do, we do together.”

“That’s the spirit!” Bow threw his hands in the air in triumph. “Best friend squad is back!”

Just as Entrapta was about to scold them for interrupting the recording, the ship alighted and the automated voice informed them that they were back on Etheria.

“Oh,” Adora blinked, standing up to look through the windows. “That was quick.”

The five of them stood up and made their way to the centre of the chamber to collect their respective prisoners. Then, something occurred to Glimmer.

“We should take Horde Prime to Bright Moon for questioning,” she realised. “That seems like an, um, like a reasonable thing to do.”

A flash of hostility passed through Hordak’s eyes as he took a step forward, standing over his brother’s body.

“Horde Prime is my prisoner,” he growled, once again the fearsome Lord of the Horde who destroyed Salineas and countless other lands. “He will be going with me.”

Bow squinted at him suspiciously. “Riiiiight,” he drawled, folding his arms. “How do we know that this isn’t some elaborate plot to help him conquer Etheria?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Did you miss the part where we were trying to kill each other?”

The young Rebel shuddered. “A _very_ elaborate plot?”

“No, fine!” Entrapta stepped forward, hair already reaching for Catra. “You take him, and we’ll take her.”

“No!” Adora cried out, then caught herself. “No,” she repeated more calmly. “Catra is dangerous and needs a thorough interrogation, not even mentioning healing. She has been badly hurt by clones during our getaway. She…”

“She tried to save us,” Glimmer finished, gaze fleeing to the side. “She tried to save me.”

“Hurt by clones, you say?” the Princess of Dryl knelt to examine the injuries and smiled when she noticed a bitemark on her forearm. “So bats _do_ eat cats, after all. Fascinating.”

Hordak filed the last statement away as something to ask his lab partner about on a more opportune moment. “We are at an impasse, then.”

“Horde Prime needs to be brought to justice!” Adora exclaimed, taking a fighter’s stance as she prepared to call on She-Ra in case of another fight. Her eyes blazed with the flame of righteousness. “And, as a matter of fact, so does the pair of you.”

“He will be.”

All four of them froze, the odd tone in Entrapta’s voice striking them silent at once. She stood up slowly, hair writhing around her like tendrils and expression hidden behind an insectoid mask.

“Horde Prime is a monster,” she said. “A cruel, heartless monster who would do anything, no matter how horrible, to further his schemes. According to my data, he isn’t entirely dissimilar from Catra in this respect.”

Adora’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. She looked away, something in the other Princess’s voice telling her that, no matter what argument she managed to scrape together, it would not be enough.

“Catra has done terrible things,” Entrapta carried on. “Not as terrible as Horde Prime, yes, but still terrible. She was the one responsible for the attack on Salineas, on Elberon, and all those other kingdoms. Besides,” she reached behind her back to massage the place where Catra had tazed her, “she was the one who pulled the lever to activate the portal. I had told her that it was unstable, that it was dangerous, but she incapacitated me and sent me off to Beast Island.”

Adora gasped, hands flying up to her mouth.

“Entrapta,” she choked out. “I’m… I’m so sorry. We didn’t know… If- If we had known, we would have- How did you leave?!“

“Hordak helped me,” came the reply, making the bat in question wince at the painful memories. “He risked his life to find me, even when there was a high probability of me being dead. What was it again?”

He cleared his throat, typing something into the holo-pad. “97.64%” he replied.

Entrapta’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “That high? My calculations gave me 57.58%. Show me your variables.”

He obediently handed her the device. “You haven’t taken into account some of the beasts on the island; you only have data on the ones you have encountered. Furthermore, my calculations were made before I found you, so I wasn’t aware of the First Ones’ research facility.”

“Oooooh, I see,” she nodded, skimming through the numbers. “Imp, remind me to compare this to my one later.”

The creature chirped affirmatively.

“Anyway,” she turned back to the Rebels, “Hordak came to save me even though, to his knowledge, I was as good as dead. (This isn’t a jab at you leaving me in the Fright Zone back then, by the way!) Because that’s what friends do. So when I saw that giant beam of light warp him up to Prime’s ship, I did the same.”

There, her voice quivered. She reached up to pull the mask over her face before remembering that it was already there. “When I hacked into the ship’s system to find a map, I downloaded some of the files about his previous conquests. I know him. I know what he did, both to countless worlds and to…” she cast a quick glance at Hordak, at his red eyes. His green, lifeless gaze would haunt her dreams for weeks to come.

“Horde Prime is a monster,” she repeated. “Catra, as horrible as she is, is not. Not yet, at least. This, and the fact that she (as you claim) risked her life to save you are the only two reasons why I am allowing her to walk away from here with you. Metaphorically speaking; she’s still out cold. Horde Prime, however?”

Hordak caught on, a grin spreading over his features even before Entrapta spoke the next words.

“He will be coming with us.”

~~~

They left the ship in silence, Adora carrying Catra in her arms. It was still night time, the starlit sky above them streaked with blazing trails of falling Horde ships, bright like comets.

“They look like those shooting stars you told me about!” Entrapta exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Hordak; her hair was busy with their prisoner.

He chuckled, returning the embrace and pressing one wing against her. “Indeed, they do,” he hummed. “Make a wish, starlight.”

“Entrapta!” A familiar voice made the Princess let out a cry of joy. She unglued herself from him just in time for Scorpia to pull her into a bearhug (scorpionhug?) “You’re alright, thank goodness. We were so worried!”

“Hi, Scorpia,” she wriggled out of the hug and lowered herself to the ground. “Where’s Emily?”

The robot emerged from behind Scorpia’s back, beeping cheerfully, and was immediately swept into a hair-hug.

_“Emily!”_ Imp alighted on the top of Emily’s head, purring happily and receiving a happy “weeeooop” in return.

Hordak watched the scene with his arms crossed, unable to keep a small smile off his face. Just a small one, mind you, and not at all fond. It was a smile of evil. Totally. Absolutely. Eventually, however, he became conscious of Scorpia’s surprised gaze and wasn’t oblivious to its cause.

“Yes, I have wings,” he preceded the inevitable question. “No, I do not know how. I do not know if they will let me fly, either.”

The ex-Force Captain blinked a couple of times, stunned. He took advantage of her state to subtly lead here away from the others.

“Force Capt-“ he cleared his throat, “I mean, Princess Scorpia, I wish to discuss something important.”

“Oh,” her face fell. “Is this about me deserting from the Horde to join the Princess Alliance?”

“No,” he paused. “Well, yes, but I would have spoken to you about this even if you hadn’t deserted. I am not angry, by the way,” he hurried to reassure her in case she began to panic.

“You’re NOT?!”

He shook his head. “You never did quite fit into the Fright Zone. Truth be told, I was surprised that it took you so long to leave, though I suppose that Catra was a factor.”

Scorpia looked away, expression crumbling. “She… I…” A pause, then a sigh. She closed her eyes. “I thought that she was important to me and I to her, that what we had was worth fighting for, but in the end…”

Hordak placed a hand on her shoulder, making her eyes snap open.

“I understand,” he said sincerely. “Sometimes the people we care about the most are the ones who hurt us the most.”

~~~

_“Some people are cruel, little one. They do not care for you as much as you do about them. This happens, like rotten berries or data crystals with cracks in them.”_

~~~

“It took me too long to realise that.” Now it was his turn to look away in shame. “I am glad, however, that you have found people who accept you for who you are.” And not condemn you for who you aren’t, he added in his mind.

Scorpia blinked a couple of times, trying to make sense of the answer.

“Anyway,” he carried on, “The Horde is no more.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “I- I mean I know that the Fright Zone is in ruins and all the soldiers who came out of those ships have been knocked out all of a sudden, but surely it can be rebuilt-“

“No,” he held up a hand. “I think that you misunderstand. The Fright Zone has always been a means to an end. I wanted to show Horde Prime that I was worthy of standing by his side, but he..." The former Lord of the Fright Zone broke off with a pained expression, then shook his head. “Irrelevant. The point is, I no longer have a need nor want for The Horde.”

The sound of Entrapta’s laughter made them both look towards the Princess, sitting on top of Emily and with Imp sitting on top of her head. She was talking to the robot about something they couldn’t discern.

Scorpia smiled at the sight, then glanced at Hordak, whose soft smile was more or less unmistakable. He reached up to stroke the purple crystal embedded into his armour.

“You have found acceptance, too,” she realised, happiness blooming within her. About time, too; the sparks between him and Entrapta were as clear as day to everyone in the Fright Zone save for the couple in question. There even used to be a betting pool over whether they would actually get together. A lot of people now owed Rogelio and Scorpia a _lot_ of ration bars.

Hordak didn’t deny, but turned back towards her, shoulders tense and wings pressed to his body. He looked uneasy.

“And since…” he coughed, seeming unsure of what he was about to say, “since The Horde is no more, I do believe that you… that I…” he paused, struggling with whatever he was going to say. “I am sorry for taking your kingdom from you, Scorpia.”

“What?” the sudden change of subject threw her off.

“I… I was stranded on an unfamiliar planet, with nothing but a broken ship and a handful of desperate soldiers to my name. We needed resources. We needed power. What we did had to be done to secure the future of the Fright Zone, of The Horde. _My_ future. I wish that I felt true remorse for what I have done, but I do regret the fact that I had to do it.”

Scorpia frowned. Was this… an apology? But Lord Hordak never apologised to anyone!

“And that is why,” he cleared his throat, voice surer now, “I believe that your lands should have a Princess at last.”

Her eyes widened. “Wh-“ No, surely he didn’t mean… “My…” No way! “My kingdom… my Runestone…”

“Are yours,” he nodded.

Before she realised what she was doing, Scorpia picked Hordak up and crushed him in an embrace (minding the wings, of course!) with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you, my Lord,” she choked out, half crying half laughing from joy. Then, it finally got to her what she was doing and she immediately set him down, rushing to stutter out an apology and oh no oh no oh no she shouldn’t have done that he would change his mind for sure now and oh dear oh no hello again Crimson Waste oh wait he wasn’t her boss anymore but he could still tear her apart or worse or

Hordak wheezed, coughing as he regained his ability to breathe. Damn, Scorpia was strong; his ribs were going to pay for this decision.

“You will be a good Princess,” he told her, cutting her increasingly frantic train of thought short. He held out a hand. “I look forward to facing you on the battlefield.”

She shook it, eyebrows raised. “Th-thank you, but I thought that you said-“

“That I no longer desire to keep running the Horde,” he nodded, a familiar, evil smile spreading on his lips. “However, do not presume that this implies that I will be out of your hair. I will return in time to claim this planet as _mine.”_ Not Horde Prime’s. His. What a great feeling to be free to be selfish!

She smiled back, casting a quick look at her new friends, talking and laughing, Adora’s hands around Bow’s and Glimmer’s shoulders. “We will give you a head start, Lord Hordak.” Her smile turned into an excited grin. “Where will you go?”

“Giving away the location of my future base of operations would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?” he chuckled, attempting to look at ease. In truth, he hadn’t the faintest clue.

“It’s Dryl,” Entrapta’s voice made both of them jump. She was sitting cross-legged on top of Emily, regarding them with interest. Imp was still perched on top of her head. “He’ll be in Dryl.”

Hordak blinked. “What? I- really?” Somehow, the idea of living with Entrapta never occurred to him; a small part of him still refused to believe that she cared about him enough to keep him around.

She shrugged. “Of course! Where did you think you’d go? Dryl has the best technological facilities in Etheria, and transporting whatever we manage to scavenge from the ruins of the Fright Zone should be a breeze. Besides, we still need to explore Beast Island and the signal. The matter has been nagging me ever since we left. Aren't you curious about how it works and what's causing it? Of course, I could do it all on my own,” she smiled that smile again. The one that made Hordak’s bones feel like jelly, “but we’re lab partners, remember?” A tendril of hair found his hand, intertwining with his fingers.

He nodded, smiling, and brought the silky strands to his lips.

The moment was, much to Scorpia’s displeasure, interrupted by Bow.

“Hey,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry to, um, bother, but what exactly did you mean when you said that you freed the clones?”

“The what?" Scorpia asked.

“Long story,” Entrapta thwapped her in the mouth with a strand of hair, shushing her.

“Oh.” Hordak has honestly forgotten all about that. “I, ah,” he ran his claws through his hair, subconsciously noticing the way his wings pressed closer to his body whenever he was distressed or uncomfortable. “I destroyed the Hive Mind, thus severing their connections to it and granting them free will. In about twelve to twenty four hours they will wake up with a headache the size of a planet and the ability to think for themselves.” Another Horde ship crashed into the hills not far away, exploding in a shower of fire and metal and making Hordak wince. “…Except for that one.”

Entrapta followed his gaze. “Well, that was unfortunate. Such a waste of a vessel. Do you think that we’ll manage to find an undamaged one around? I want to study Prime’s tech.”

“Hmm, definitely. I believe that some must have landed already. Shall we look for them?”

“Later,” she yawned. “I want to get back to Dryl and put this,” she gestured at Prime’s unconscious form, still tangled in her hair, “in a proper cell. Dragging him around is exhausting.”

“We could find an intact ship and fly there,” he suggested. “I still remember how to pilot. That way, we could…”

“Have two strings to one bow?” Bow suggested.

“Of course not!” Entrapta rolled her eyes. “It’s: _fix two bugs with one line of code. _Everyone knows that one.”

“In Dryl, maybe,” he crossed his arms. “My dads taught me the bow one.”

Scorpia raised a claw. “And my moms taught me the one about frying two boards-“

“-with one current!” Entrapta finished, clapping her hands. It was a common expression around the Fright Zone.

“Okay, that one is superior, I admit,” Bow conceded, pouting. “I’ll still beat your robots into the dirt the next time we face each other.”

Entrapta extended a tendril of hair to pat him on the head.

“Suuuuuuuure you will,” she cooed, nodding like a patient mother. “You run off, now, and play with your Princess friends.”

“And once Catra wakes up,” Hordak cut in, baring his teeth, “tell her that she does not want to know what I will do to her if I ever see her face again.”

Bow paled noticeably. He nodded quickly, grabbed Scorpia by the elbow and pulled her away in the direction of the rest of the Rebels.

Hordak watched them go, then reached to pat Emily's chassis.

"It's good to see you again," he told the robot, earning a series of happy beeps. "Scorpia has been treating you well, I see." The same couldn't be said for Catra, however, if the deep claw marks were anything to go by. Damned cat.

Entrapta smiled down at the two of them, absentmindedly stroking Imp's head as the small creature lied on her lap. It purred in its sleep. She wondered if Hordak purred, too, and made a mental note to find out as soon as possible.

"Do you really want me to live with you?" he asked suddenly, looking up at her with an expression she didn't know how to interpret. Shock? Disbelief? Uncertainty?

"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I? We're partners and also used to sharing a workspace due to our previous experience at the Fright Zone. Unless..." The light in her eyes dulled, her hair drooping ever so slightly. She pulled the mask over her face. "Unless you don't want to..."

Because of course he wouldn't want that, a whisper remarkably similar to those that plagued her while on Beast Island (before she found the research facility and fixed the shield emitter) hissed into her ear. He was going to abandon her just like the rest. Sure, her company was fun for a while, but why would he want to be around her for longer? Let's be real, he was probably only humouring her by acting like he loved her back, or maybe he was manipulating her like Catra did. Relationships were so confusing to her. She didn't understand them no matter how many experiments she conducted, and people didn't understand her.

"No!" Hordak cried out, as if sensing the direction her mind was heading.

She startled, the cry making her jump but successfully pulling her out of her increasingly gloomy thoughts. Imp awoke with a shriek and zoomed off her lap to hide behind Emily's leg.

He covered his mouth when he realised that he raised his voice. "No," he tried again, more quietly, and got to his feet. "I do, Entrapta. By the stars, nothing would give me more joy than getting to work by your side again."

The mask went up, just a little. "Really?"

"Of course," he tried to keep his voice steady as his brain screamed at him not to fuck this up, not to lose her again. Suddenly, the idea of existing without her seemed like a fate worse than death. "You are the most brilliant person I have ever met. I..." a faint blush coloured his cheeks. "I simply..." He sighed, looking away. "I still find it difficult to adjust to being wanted in return."

Entrapta slowly lifted the mask, then slid off Emily and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"It's okay," she sniffled, smiling when she felt him embrace her in return. "It's a new experience for me, too."

He smiled a genuine, non-evil smile (which, according to her data, he only smiled around her) and tilted her chin up to look at her face.

"Allow me to put it as plainly as I can, then," he told her, voice gentle yet serious. "I love you, Entrapta of Dryl, and I want you in my life for as long as you will have me. If you allow me, I would be honoured to return to Crypto Castle with you and resume my role as your partner, lab or otherwise. Relationships are just as strange for me as they are to you (if not more) so this..." he made a vague hand gesture, "...this thing that we share now... does not need to change anything between us. If you want to carry on like we used to, I will agree. If you want increased physical contact or more open displays of affection such as kissing, I will adjust accordingly, though I do not promise that I will get it right the first time. No matter what your decision will be, I will respect it, I swear to you."

"Now," he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, "we will find a working ship and go to Dryl, where both of us will have a long and well-deserved rest. How does that sound..." There. There it was, that non-evil smile again. It made Entrapta's heart leap in her chest. Metaphorically speaking, of course, as hearts did not have legs and were thus unable to leap. "...lab partner?"

She nodded, smiling back and willing the strand of hair he just tucked away to grab his hand and press it to her cheek.

"That sounds good," she replied, her eyes shining like two violet stars. "Take us home, lab partner."

~~~

_"And thus, the Prince led the Princess to his ship and they flew towards the setting sun, holding hands and laughing like children without a care in the world."_

_"And then they lived happily ever after?" little Entrapta asked._

_Queen Arianna of Dryl smiled down at her daughter. "Yes, my little one," she said, combing her fingers through her hair. "Just like in every good fairy tale, they lived happily ever after_ _."_

** _The End._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaand that's a wrap! My, what a trip this fic was. Thank you all so so so so much for tagging along and absolutely spoiling me with comments and kudos. This is the best fandom ever. The next fic in the series, "Seeing Red", will be a oneshot, so thankfully there will be a lot less waiting for that one. Once again, thank you and see you in Dryl!
> 
> Oh, a small note. Entrapta's parents are named Arianna (Arianna is the name of Rapunzel's mother in "Tangled") and Faystus (like saying Hephaestus without the "He-" bit.) Yes, I'm a nerd. No, I'm not sorry. For the mother's name, I was also considering Punziela, but Arianna sounds a bit better. A bit more regal.


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